Dutch Review of Church History, Volume 83: The Pastor Bonus

From earliest times the Western Church has fiercely debated questions about the place of the ministry within the Church and Church government. What requirements should be met by candidates for holy orders and what do we expect of priests and ministers: personal holiness, training for their calling, social skills or merely the possession of official ordination? The Church has at different times produced very different answers and the 30 scholars from Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium, whose papers in this volume follow the course of the debate concerning the good shepherd from the early church through to modern times, show on the one hand what happens to Christian communities that have lost a clear view of the functions of the ministry and on the other just how much trust people have always placed in their priests and pastors.With contributions by Anton Weiler, Charles Caspers, Robert Swanson, Petty Bange, Mathilde van Dijk, Claire Cross, Fred van Lieburg, Ingrid Dobbe, Frank van de Pol, Eamon Duffy, Joke Spaans, Trevor Johnson, Gian Ackermans, David Wykes, Jeremy Gregory, W.M. Jacob, Joris van Eijnatten, Nigel Yates, David Bos, Leo Kenis, F.G.M. Broeyer, Frances Knight, John Tomlinson, Stuart Mews, Lieve Gevers and Ian Jones.

Theo H.J. Clemens, Ph.D. (1988) in Church History, Catholic University of Brabant, Tilburg, is Associate Professor of Church History at the Catholic Theological University at Utrecht, Senior Researcher at the Research Institute Ruusbroec-Genootschap at the University of Antwerp, and Executive Editor of Trajecta.Wim Janse, Ph.D. (1994) in Church History, Theological University Apeldoorn, is Extraordinary Professor in the History of the Reformation at the Free University Amsterdam, Assistant Professor in the History of Christianity at Leiden University, and Executive Editor of the Dutch Review of Church History and Brill’s Series in Church History.